Chapter 41: The Temple of Abu Simbel

readx;? The adjacent Luxor Temple, which was largely completed during the reign of Amenhoput III, added a corridor supported by 72 stone columns and a massive arch (the stone tower with the temple gates) to the existing structure, divided into two rows of stone columns with ornamental motifs, and the walls of the arches were carved with reliefs describing the Battle of Kadesh. At the front www.biquge.info of these buildings are six colossal statues and two obelisks with faces similar to those of Ramses II, but today only one obelisk remains in the Temple of Luxor, and the other was moved to the Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1836.

A 2-kilometre-long "Sphinx Avenue" connects Karnak Temple with the Luxor Temple in the south, which is also dedicated to Lord Amun. The Nile River also connects the two sacred cities, and on some major festivals, statues of Lord Amun are loaded onto boats and transported from Karnak to Luxor under the escort of a small boat column.

Ramses II also built the Palace of Ramses in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of Thebes. The complex is undoubtedly the greatest structure conceived by the pharaoh, a temple for funerals, but the ultimate purpose was not to house the remains of Ramses, but to facilitate the burial of him after his death.

The funeral city is surrounded by a high wall, and in addition to the main hall, there are workshops, shops, and even a school for the training of transcribers. In this school, archaeologists found some papyrus books. Finally, there is an interesting thing: in order to build a funeral city for himself, Ramses ordered the removal of some materials from ancient buildings. This is precisely how the palace of Ramses was later treated: the palace, which was supposed to represent the great cause of Ramses and has been passed down through the ages, was later partially demolished because another king wanted to build his own palace.

The temple of Abu Simbel is regarded as the greatest work of Ramses and a veritable jewel of ancient architecture. The four giant statues, carved out of the rocky mountains 20 meters high, symbolize the pharaoh sitting at the palace gates, and they have become symbols of Egyptian civilization. Professor Sergio Donadoni, one of Italy's leading Egyptologists, explains: "This is truly an incredible building that brings the architectural elements of classical Egyptian architecture deep into the mountains. ”

The temple was built on a hillside and excavated to a depth of 60 meters, and it was originally intended to be dedicated to the three main gods, Amun, Ra and Bhuta, but in reality it served only one "true god", Ramses himself.

Temples, in addition to buildings on the ground, also have a kind of cave temples carved out of mountain cliffs. A typical rock hollow is the Temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel, located in the south of Aswan, near the Second Falls of the Nile. The temple is dedicated to the gods Amun, La Harakaiti and Puzhaota, and also commemorates Ramses II himself. It is actually a combination of a temple and a sacrificial temple. The cave temple at Abu Simbel is located on the rocky side of the mountain, with holes carved into the slopes of the cliffs. The façade of the temple may be called the tower gate, which is 32 meters high and 36 meters long, and there are four seated statues of Ramses II about 21 meters high carved on both sides of the entrance of the tower gate. There is also a pillar hall and a seated statue of the above-mentioned god and himself in the depths of the temple.

The cave is 60 meters long, and every year on February 21, Ramses II's birthday, and October 21, Ramses II's coronation, the sun can pass through the 60-meter-deep temple corridor and sprinkle on the statue of Ramses II, while the statues around him do not enjoy the wonderful gift of the sun god, so people call Ramses II "the darling of the sun". Call this day the "Day of the Sun". Due to the construction of the Aswan Dam, the temple site was moved to a height of 65 meters 201 meters from the Nile River in 1968, and the "solar day" was postponed by one day. More than 3,000 years have passed, and the mystery of this spectacle, carefully calculated by ancient Egyptian architects, has not been solved.

However, the fate of the temple was a tragic one, as an earthquake caused it great damage shortly after its completion, breaking many stone pillars and statues, including the entire upper part of the temple's façade. Most of the damage was later restored, but the architects of the time were unable to do much to help the statue and left the fragments scattered nearby.

Ramses II inscribed on his Empress's tombstone his confession of love for her, "My love for you is unique - for you are the most beautiful in the world, and no one can replace you." When you walk gently past me, you take my heart away. ”

Centuries after the death of Ramses II, the building was completely abandoned, and the sand began to gradually bury it, eventually leaving only the head and shoulders of the huge statue at the entrance exposed. It was discovered in 1813 by a Swiss scholar, Johann Burckhardt, and after four years of sleep, the Italian Jordan Belzoni began excavating it. After months of work, a path was finally carved out of the sand, and after thousands of years, someone was finally able to enter the interior of the temple.

After a long time, the magnificent temple, chosen by Ramses to represent his great power and divine destiny, was finally destroyed, and he was almost buried underwater forever. In 1960, Egyptian President Nasser began to order the construction of the Aswan Reservoir, which will form an artificial lake about 500 kilometers long, which can turn many barren lands into fertile land. It was a project of great importance to the country, but it would bury many relics of the Egyptian pharaonic civilization forever, including the temple of Abu Simbel, which also made it rapidly rise in popularity around the world.

UNESCO sounded the alarm when it launched a veritable rescue operation, with 113 countries around the world lending a helping hand to Egypt with manpower, money and technology. The plan was to dismantle the temple of Abu al-Simbel into many pieces and then reassemble them 180 meters from the original site and 65 meters above the ground. The entire project took five years and used more than 2,000 workers, tons of material, and resource technology never before seen in the history of archaeology. Throughout the process, each piece is numbered to facilitate reassembly. The rebuilt temple is in the same position as the original, and it is based on the constellation and the course of the Nile after the completion of the Aswan Dam. The protruding peaks were restored to their original state, and the entire giant building block was finally completed.